The 91-year-old veteran tripped and suffered two broken ribs, a gashed head, a bleeding leg and severe bruising to his arm and body

George said: "That's how kids act these days. The find someone to torment. But when they're 14 and 15, you'd think they had something better to do.

"It was two girls. I had seen a lad with them before. They had been doing it all week. They were throwing big apples and stones at the window." The courageous couple, who have two children, three grandchildren and six great grandchildren, stood up to the louts after suffering a barrage of anti-social abuse at their terrace house in Little Lever, Greater Manchester.

Dorothy went out first after hearing several loud bangs. She said: "I said to them 'have you not got anything better to do than throw apples and torment people.

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"The bigger girl just smirked at me. I came back in and told George not to bother going out." But George was fed up with the constant attacks and got up from watching TV and went out to face their tormentors.

He said: "I just went to the front door and told them to clear off. I didn't want to be sat in the house all day waiting for the window to break. I don't remember falling, it's all still a bit hazy. But I remember the ambulance coming." The two girls fled but luckily a couple walking past found George with blood pouring from his head and called for an ambulance.

Dorothy, who used to work in a cotton mill, added: "I didn't know he had gone outside. I presumed he had gone upstairs and wasn't bothered.

He was rushed to Bolton Infirmary and was allowed home a few hours later but has still not ventured out of his house

"A young couple were passing and they knocked on the door and said 'your husband is on the floor'. I thought he's had it. I was shaking, thinking all sorts.

"I came in and I was trying to phone my daughter and my son. I was in shock. They were only teenagers. There were apples everywhere on the floor. Where are the police that used to walk around here? What are you meant to do when things happen? You're just lost, you're stuck. You can't do a thing these days." Granddaughter Lisa Gerrard, 39, is stunned by the reaction to her Facebook post including a message from a woman from flood-hit Texas.

She said: "I can't believe it. I've had messages from people in California to Australia. I had a message from a woman in Texas asking if there was anything she could do to help. I thought 'have you not got your own problems?'.

"It is shocking that they were girls, they showed no empathy. We all used to play knock a door run when we were kids, but they've taken it step further by throwing stones and goading old people.

"I put it on Facebook so the kids could see it and pack it in. If they didn't know what they had done, they would have carried on. It wasn't a one off.

"My grandad is a trooper. He walks to Tesco three times a day but hasn't been out since the attack as he doesn't want to scare the local kids. He'll be back out again soon, he'll never let them win."

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